All the latest on the unmasking of LulzSec leader “Sabu,” arrests (updated)

LulzSec mastermind "Sabu" was identified today as 28-year-old Hector Monsegur, who has been working with the FBI since being arrested last summer and pleaded guilty to computer hacking crimes. We're digging into court documents and planning detailed coverage of the story, but no one site can cover every aspect. So we're going to keep an updated list of the top stories and happenings throughout the day. (We'll put new links at the top.)

CSO describes an FBI official's claim that "We're chopping off the head of LulzSec," but says LulzSec is pretty small compared to the overall Anonymous movement. There's no reason to believe "that the hacktivist element of Anonymous will fall apart because of this," one security company executive notes.

The Guardian has posted the full text of some of the documents from the indictments against LulzSec members. The paper also has an analysis of the court papers, detailing Monsegur's cooperation with the FBI. The story notes Monsegur providing the FBI advance notice of attacks, which the FBI apparently allowed to proceed. "The FBI even provided its own servers for members of hacking collectives to use."

Gawker has posted a story saying Monsegur was arrested on Feb. 3 in New York City by NYPD for attempting to pass himself off as an FBI agent.

Self-appointed Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown told the New York Times that he received advance warning of the FBI raid on his home in Dallas, and that he hid his laptops to avoid them being found. Brown promised that "Anonymous will go forward as usual. So will I. We hired an army of lawyers last January. We are prepared for a big slug-out." (The quote seems to have been deleted from the Times story, although a portion of the quote exists in another Times article and the full quote appears in some other accounts.)

Fox News kicked it off this morning with an exclusive look into the FBI raid on Monsegur's New York apartment last June. Monsegur had normally been cautious, but slipped up one day when he "logged into an Internet relay chatroom from his own IP address without masking it." Fox News notes that "All it took was once. The feds had a fix on him."

Monsegur pleaded guilty on August 15 to conspiracy to engage in computer hacking, a plea only made public today.

Monsegur and five other members of Anonymous, LulzSec, and other groups were charged with various crimes including last year's famous attack against security firm HBGary Federal, and one against private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting (or Stratfor), Bloomberg reports. In addition to Monsegur, Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis, Darren Martyn, Donncha O’Cearrbhail, and Jeremy Hammond were the names of the other alleged hackers. Other crimes pinned against some or all of the six defendants include attacks on Fox Broadcasting, the Chicago Tribune parent Tribune Co., and the government websites of Algeria, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

The FBI press release has many details about the arrests and specific charges, saying the victims of the six hackers numbered over 1 million.

Barrett Brown said the arrested hackers formed the de facto leadership of Anonymous, and called Monsegur "an absolute traitor," the same Bloomberg story also notes.

FBI officials raided a Chicago home yesterday in connection with an investigation into the LulzSec and Anonymous hacking groups, the Chicago Tribune reports, citing an unnamed law enforcement source. The story does not say whose home was raided, but Bloomberg noted that Hammond was arrested in Chicago for crimes related to the Stratfor hack.

Consulting firm Errata Security has posted its own notes on the Sabu arrest, calling it "a good lesson for Tor users. Tor, itself, is not enough to keep your identity hidden." Monsegur was a Tor user, although he was caught after logging on to IRC without going through Tor.

The Anonymous Twitter account AnonOps sent out a terse message stating "@anonymouSabu is now controlled by feds. We have blocked the account and we suggest you do as well. #BlockAnonymouSabu."

Another Anonymous Twitter account promised to fight on in its own decentralized way, saying "We don't have a leader." A site called "Death and Taxes" downplayed the arrests' impact on Anonymous, noting that the belief that "Sabu" was a rat has been circulating in the hacking community for months. "Anonymous has grown beyond LulzSec and Sabu," the article states.

Before the indictment unsealing yesterday, the Twitter account allegedly run by "Sabu" tweeted "The federal government is run by a bunch of fucking cowards. Don't give in to these people. Fight back. Stay strong."

The Wikipedia page on Sabu has been updated to reflect Monsegur's arrest, and we'd imagine it will undergo quite an overhaul in the next few days.

107 Reader Comments

A site called "Death and Taxes" downplayed the arrests' impact on Anonymous, noting that the belief that "Sabu" was a rat has been circulating in the hacking community for months. "Anonymous has grown beyond LulzSec and Sabu," the article states.

Consulting firm Errata Security has posted its own notes on the Sabu arrest, calling it "a good lesson for Tor users. Tor, itself, is not enough to keep your identity hidden." Monsegur was a Tor user, although he was caught after logging on to IRC without going through Tor.

Sounds Like FUD to me... "Tor, itself, is not enough to keep your identity hidden, especially if you don't use Tor"

My overriding impression of "Sabu" is of a keyboard warrior, dishing it out to the great enemies of freedom, who upon discovery by the authorities started crying for his mummy in between shouting " it's not fair!".

A rat is still a rat, regardless of how much damage is done to Anonymous. So much for standing up for your ideals. He didn't do it for his kid as has been suggested. What kid wants a parent to be a rat and a coward?

My overriding impression of "Sabu" is of a keyboard warrior, dishing it out to the great enemies of freedom, who upon discovery by the authorities started crying for his mummy in between shouting " it's not fair!".

Didn't he attack Nintendo and PBS?

And he attacked PBS for running a fairly open minded piece on Assange and Bradley that showed both sides?

A rat is still a rat, regardless of how much damage is done to Anonymous. So much for standing up for your ideals. He didn't do it for his kid as has been suggested. What kid wants a parent to be a rat and a coward?

Kids want parents who are there and not in jail.

You're saying his kids would prefer to be taken away from their father and go into foster homes? Really?

Consulting firm Errata Security has posted its own notes on the Sabu arrest, calling it "a good lesson for Tor users. Tor, itself, is not enough to keep your identity hidden." Monsegur was a Tor user, although he was caught after logging on to IRC without going through Tor.

Sounds Like FUD to me... "Tor, itself, is not enough to keep your identity hidden, especially if you don't use Tor"

Yeah, I don't understand that quote from Errata either. Based on the info that we have, he was caught specifically because he didn't use Tor.

A site called "Death and Taxes" downplayed the arrests' impact on Anonymous, noting that the belief that "Sabu" was a rat has been circulating in the hacking community for months. "Anonymous has grown beyond LulzSec and Sabu," the article states.

Yeah, it's grown to be a bunch of script kiddies who use prepackaged DoS tools. I suspect that more and more is going to develop from these arrests.

A rat is still a rat, regardless of how much damage is done to Anonymous. So much for standing up for your ideals. He didn't do it for his kid as has been suggested. What kid wants a parent to be a rat and a coward?

A rat is still a rat, regardless of how much damage is done to Anonymous. So much for standing up for your ideals. He didn't do it for his kid as has been suggested. What kid wants a parent to be a rat and a coward?

Seriously? A kid wants their parent around. Do you SERIOUSLY suggest that his young children would want their father to go to prison and be out of their lives for a very long time? Do they even understand the concept of "ideals" or even what their dad did?

I take it you have no kids an no family and I'm sure you're very strong in your ideals. But if you have a family and kids etc etc, then you're just a selfish prick if you don't take their fate into your decisions. As it is, this guy is going away for a long time as he just has a public defender.

My overriding impression of "Sabu" is of a keyboard warrior, dishing it out to the great enemies of freedom, who upon discovery by the authorities started crying for his mummy in between shouting " it's not fair!".

Didn't he attack Nintendo and PBS?

And he attacked PBS for running a fairly open minded piece on Assange and Bradley that showed both sides?

I doubt they caught him because he didn't hide his IP address one time. That seems like a cover story so they don't give away the method they used to actually catch him.

Whoa Whoa Whoa.... Are you saying they would not admit to "persuading" someone to allow them a backdoor into the tor network or revealing they have a method to narrow down the location of a specific tor user with the help of ISPs... Naw...They would be way to proud of their accomplishment to not tell everyone...

While I don't agree with how they carried out things (what the hell does a denial of service attack actually accomplish?), but it's pretty sickening to see what they did in hacking security firms as a crime when these firms can do the same to citizens and it's not considered one. It should all be considered criminal, no one should be above the Law.

If anything, Anonymous has shown us the hypocrisy that exists around us.

I doubt they caught him because he didn't hide his IP address one time. That seems like a cover story so they don't give away the method they used to actually catch him.

I work with law enforcement on a fairly regular basis in helping to eliminate child exploitation on the 'net: Pretty much any cop worth his salt will tell you than 90% of bad guys caught aren't due to "brilliant police work", but criminals' stupidity.

It's almost *always* the stupid screw ups that can bring down even the mightiest.

Ex: If Al Capone had just paid his income taxes, he would have staid uncaught for a *much* longer time...

It would be funny to know how fast the FBI managed to turn the guy. I'm guessing it didn't take very long. I'm also guessing that the other guys who were caught and are complaining about how much of a traitor the guy is also would have turned pretty fast under the circumstances. It's all "viva la revolution!!" until the FBI comes knocking. And then, rather than doing a Neo from The Matrix, it's all sobbing and promises to do whatever they want.

A rat is still a rat, regardless of how much damage is done to Anonymous. So much for standing up for your ideals. He didn't do it for his kid as has been suggested. What kid wants a parent to be a rat and a coward?

It would be funny to know how fast the FBI managed to turn the guy. I'm guessing it didn't take very long. I'm also guessing that the other guys who were caught and are complaining about how much of a traitor the guy is also would have turned pretty fast under the circumstances. It's all "viva la revolution!!" until the FBI comes knocking. And then, rather than doing a Neo from The Matrix, it's all sobbing and promises to do whatever they want.

He was broke and unemployed but posted $50,000 bail the next day.

He folded immediately. And while I wouldn't commit a crime to put myself in that position, I would easily take my kids over criminals any day of the week. What parent wouldn't make that call immediately?

Consulting firm Errata Security has posted its own notes on the Sabu arrest, calling it "a good lesson for Tor users. Tor, itself, is not enough to keep your identity hidden." Monsegur was a Tor user, although he was caught after logging on to IRC without going through Tor.

Sounds Like FUD to me... "Tor, itself, is not enough to keep your identity hidden, especially if you don't use Tor"

Yeah, I don't understand that quote from Errata either. Based on the info that we have, he was caught specifically because he didn't use Tor.

I understand. Its because when people use Tor they think they are safe and forget they are using it. This guy slipped up because he forgot that he had to use Tor.

So just using Tor will not keep you safe. You have to remember to use it.

It would be funny to know how fast the FBI managed to turn the guy. I'm guessing it didn't take very long. I'm also guessing that the other guys who were caught and are complaining about how much of a traitor the guy is also would have turned pretty fast under the circumstances. It's all "viva la revolution!!" until the FBI comes knocking. And then, rather than doing a Neo from The Matrix, it's all sobbing and promises to do whatever they want.

He was broke and unemployed but posted $50,000 bail the next day.

He folded immediately. And while I wouldn't commit a crime to put myself in that position, I would easily take my kids over criminals any day of the week. What parent wouldn't make that call immediately?

A rat is still a rat, regardless of how much damage is done to Anonymous. So much for standing up for your ideals. He didn't do it for his kid as has been suggested. What kid wants a parent to be a rat and a coward?

A rat is still a rat, regardless of how much damage is done to Anonymous. So much for standing up for your ideals. He didn't do it for his kid as has been suggested. What kid wants a parent to be a rat and a coward?

He was a coward since the first time he launched an online attack "anonymously".

Self-appointed Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown told the New York Times that he received advance warning of the FBI raid on his home in Dallas, and that he hid his laptops to avoid them being found. Brown promised that "Anonymous will go forward as usual. So will I. We hired an army of lawyers last January. We are prepared for a big slug-out."

I'm sure his lawyer is thrilled that he just admitted to obstruction of justice. Idiot.

I doubt they caught him because he didn't hide his IP address one time. That seems like a cover story so they don't give away the method they used to actually catch him.

Whoa Whoa Whoa.... Are you saying they would not admit to "persuading" someone to allow them a backdoor into the tor network or revealing they have a method to narrow down the location of a specific tor user with the help of ISPs... Naw...They would be way to proud of their accomplishment to not tell everyone...

Oh yeah, I cannot imagine feds aren't telling us the whole story either...

Self-appointed Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown told the New York Times that he received advance warning of the FBI raid on his home in Dallas, and that he hid his laptops to avoid them being found. Brown promised that "Anonymous will go forward as usual. So will I. We hired an army of lawyers last January. We are prepared for a big slug-out."

I'm sure his lawyer is thrilled that he just admitted to obstruction of justice. Idiot.

Err I'm fairly sure it was a tactical statement - most likely there is no such things as "a laptop" per se but rather multiple devices, in multiple locations so this sounds like they are baiting the feds...

His bust is a joke. He had to be a real idiot for the FBI to catch him so easily. Using Tor helps but give me a break. Anyone with a little bit of common sense would not have been caught by the FBI boys with the tools that are available. I believe people are watching too much of the C.S.I. shows and their super computers. I believe this would make a good comedy movie.

My overriding impression of "Sabu" is of a keyboard warrior, dishing it out to the great enemies of freedom, who upon discovery by the authorities started crying for his mummy in between shouting " it's not fair!".